Travel Zette

I am on my first cruise! The 28 day Midnight Sun and Baltic on Holland America’s Ryndam. We left Dover, England on Saturday for Norway. It was a last minute booking 30 days prior and I did not have much time to research. It was over a week after I booked that I realized the first 2 weeks were all in Norway. It has been 4 days on the ship with wind and waves in the North Sea. We did have beautiful weather in our first 2 ports, Stavanger and Flåm. I have never seen fjords and even with less snow this winter, there is still a bit remaining on the crests along with many amazing waterfalls. In Stavanger, we went on the historic sailing ship Sandnes to Lysefjord and Pulpit Rock with beautiful blue skies.

The next day in Flåm was magical. We awoke at 4 am heading down a beautiful fjord and went up to the Crow’s Nest and Sky Deck for the best views. Flåm is a charming little town of about 500 at the end of Aurlandsfjord which is a tributary of the 203km Sognedfjord, Norway’s deepest fjord at 1308 metres. We were docked right at the town and off the ship by 8 am to get tickets on the highly recommended Flåmsbana railway to Myrdal. We also decided to take the Nærøyfjord cruise with a 20 minute bus ride to the boat dock in Gudvangen. But the bus driver left a group of us and we were not advised until a half hour before the boat was to leave. They offered a refund but my friend Kathleen decided we were not missing this UNESCO world heritage site and advised them we would take a taxi (we saw one waiting) and they could reimburse us upon our return. So off we went, in a Mercedes taxi with a driver that we discovered was a Viking! Check out his Facebook page: georgviking. We drove through 2 tunnels, one 7 kilometres and the other 11 kilometres. But the longest tunnel is in nearby Aurland which is 24.5 kilometres! The fjord was incredible with high (1200 metre) cliffs and waterfalls cascading from the top. We were so happy that we did not miss it. Our boat arrived back in Flåm at 1:10 pm and in time for our reserved classic railway journey at 1:35.

It is a 20 kilometre ride up 864m of elevation and takes 45 minutes one way. It is one of the steepest railways with a stop at Kjosfossen, a powerful waterfall where you are so close you get wet from the mist. We sailed from Flåm at 6 pm as the sky began to get cloudy but we enjoyed the view back down Sognedfjord to the North Sea. It was a long daylight with less than 4 hours between sunrise and sunset and we arrived in Ålesund the next morning. A bit grey and rainy but a lovely town on a peninsula surrounded by islands.

Trondheim, Norway’s third largest city was our next stop with cooler temperatures and a grey cloudy sky. The ship anquored and we were tendered to shore. The highlight was the beautiful all stone Nidaros Cathedral built on the grave of Saint Olav. There is Anglo-Norman influence as craftsman were brought in from England. The interior has a likeness to Westminster Abby. By the time we sailed, the sun was out and we saw a beautiful city surrounded by mountains, islands and fjords. Yesterday around 10:30 am we crossed the Arctic Circle and continue North into the midnight sun with no sunset for 5 days.